Media Backgrounder
Some of the privacy issues to be highlighted at the 29th International
Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners include:
The Surveillance Society
New technologies make it possible to track virtually our every movement. Computer
and wireless tracking such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), automatic
number plate recognition and highly sophisticated surveillance cameras
are increasingly being used to monitor our movements as we go about our
daily lives as citizens, employees, consumers, travelers and patients. Privacy
advocates around the world are raising increasingly urgent questions about
these technologies. Are our GPS-equipped cars becoming Big Brother? Do
we want to live in a world where billions of RFID chips allow anyone with
the right database to find out where everyone and everything is at any
point in time? Under what conditions – if any – should
people be implanted with RFID chips? Are we indeed, as some have
said, sleepwalking our way into a surveillance society?
Nanotechnology
Developments in nanotechnology – technology involving materials
far smaller than a grain of sand – will revolutionize surveillance
capacities and the power to swiftly process vast amounts of information. Nanotechnology
could make surveillance invisible. For example, “smart dust” – tiny
wireless sensors too small to see – could eventually track the movements
of anything, including people. Meanwhile, researchers foresee a
day when nanotech microchips implanted into people will dispense prescription
drugs and provide “assisted cognition” to those suffering
from Alzheimer’s. Some have raised concerns about the potential
for the same technology to be used to control and monitor prison inmates,
parolees, welfare recipients, children and workers.
Radio Frequency Identification
RFID is one of the world’s fastest growing technologies. These
tiny wireless tracking chips – which some call “spychips” – are
rapidly becoming a part of many routine activities. They allow for
automated access to offices, speedy library check-outs, automated
road toll payments, hospital asset tracking and warehouse management. We
could soon see the technology used for automated check-outs at grocery
stores. People have already been implanted with RFIDs for various
purposes: to give doctors a way to quickly access medical information;
for security access and even by nightclubs to automatically bill customers’ drinks. The
privacy implications are significant. RFIDs will make it easier
for corporations to track what we buy and for government authorities
to monitor more of our activities.
Children’s Privacy
Children growing up in an age of the Internet and social networking
sites live in a much different privacy environment than their
parents grew up in. Privacy policies on websites popular with
children are often writing in university-level language. Children’s
personal information is being gathered over the Internet. There
is a burgeoning trade in children’s information – including
the names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of pre-schoolers – in
North America. Older children are also exploring a new world of
social interaction and self expression on the Internet – and are
more and more often getting stung by the privacy perils implicit
in taking their personal lives online. Privacy advocates and academics
are only beginning to examine how to help young people filter
their online communications so they won’t run into trouble.
Transborder Data Flows
The personal information of tens of thousands of people can now
be sent spiralling around the world at the touch of a button. Sending
personal data across borders for processing or as part of public security
information sharing arrangements has profound implications for privacy. Once
information leaves a country, it becomes subject to the laws of a foreign
country, including search and seizure laws. There is a risk foreign
governments and agencies could use this information in ways that could
harm law-abiding Canadians. Privacy commissioners and others are
searching for international solutions to these challenges, in
large part through a significant OECD effort to address cross-border
issues related to effective enforcement of privacy laws.
Conference participants will also share ideas on a host of other important
privacy issues, including data mining, Internet
crime, genetic research and bio-banking, international
privacy standards and privacy audits.
The conference is bringing together the who’s who of the privacy
world, offering a unique opportunity to interview leading international
experts on a wide range of emerging privacy issues.
For more information see the conference program and speakers list, or
contact:
Colin McKay
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Tel: (613) 995-0103
E-mail: cmckay@privcom.gc.ca
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